Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1526 to 1550 of 4999 results

1526. A Reminder of the Graciousness of God

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... .” Members of Lambert’s church have installed a ramp and other mobility accessories in her home and have set up a visiting schedule to ensure this woman has plenty of contact with people who care about her. (5) We acknowledge God best when we live out the kindness of God in the world. That’s what the family of God is all about. And I think Matthew’s story teaches us that it is those who have received the unearned, undeserved mercy of God that are best able to share that mercy with others. If you ...

1527. Converts Or Disciples?

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

William G. Carter

... any Gentiles,” he said, “but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (10:6). Christian faith began as Jewish faith – Jesus the Jew went only to the Jews. He was the Messiah for people who wanted a Messiah, provided he was the kind of Messiah that they wanted. But now it was after Easter. Easter changed everything. Jesus had taught in Israel, but now his instruction is intended for all. He had healed those in his neighborhood, but now he was available for the healing of all people. Any ...

1528. More Fully Understanding Christ

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... best-selling book Atomic Habits, James Clear writes, “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.” (8) What kind of person do you wish to become? If you wish to become more like Jesus, then your faith must be put into action. And the final thing we learn from this parable is that those who understand Jesus’ message will live in such a way that they draw ...

1529. Wrestling with God

Genesis 32:22-31

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... of guy who is always looking for an advantage over other people. In Paul Harvey’s book The Rest of the Story, he tells of two men who were discussing the character of a third man. “Let me describe him this way,” said the first. “He’s the kind of guy who follows you into a revolving door and comes out ahead of you.” (4) That sounds like Jacob. He was determined to be in control of his fate, even if it meant robbing his brother of his future. Jacob’s greatest desire was to claim the honors of ...

1530. Good News/Bad News

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... pilgrimage with Jesus. Then Jesus changed the subject. Up until now it had been mainly good news, but then Jesus started to give them a different kind of news. He began to tell them that the crowds would soon turn against him, He would be crucified, but on the third day he would ... Will Willimon: Acting Up in Jesus’ Name (Kindle Locations 1483-1487). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition. 4. “What Kind of Messiah is He?” Rev. Alex Stevenson, Grace United Methodist Church http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca ...

1531. The Debt of Love

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... her mouth and patted her on the cheek, Markquart says he saw for sure the genuine love of God between a man and a woman. He knew that love was true, and he knew that quality of love was from God. (4) The purest kind of love is that which cannot be reciprocated. God’s love is that kind of love. There is nothing that we can do for God. God has need of nothing in this world. He who flung the 200 billion trillion stars in the sky has no need of anything this world can offer. The only way we ...

1532. The Fringe

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... tallit itself indicates that the wearer is covering him or herself in the presence of God, the tzitzit has even deeper meaning. The threads, knotted and twisted together, remind the wearer of God’s commandments and presence. Just as the worker’s apron becomes a kind of extension of who he is, the hem of the tallit, along with its accompanying tzitzit threads also represent an extension of its owner, their person and authority.[1] The tzitzit in essence extends and accents the hem. In the case of a rabbi ...

1533. The Fork in the Path

Matthew 10:24-39

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... punches. He tells is straight as it is. If they accept this mission, they will encounter trouble, peril, death threats, or worse. And yet, he hopes they will carry it out just the same. For this mission makes the difference in the world. It is a saving kind of mission. The question: “Will you accept this mission?” Or in other terms, “Are you with me,…or not?” needs an answer. We know the rest of the story. They do accept. The mission was fraught with danger, death, torture, and more. And yet, they ...

1534. Let's Get Together

Acts 2:1-21 · Genesis 11:1-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

... are attempts at self-serving unity which resists God’s scattering activities. Now I can understand your resistance to such an interpretation. As Christians we tend to view unity as God’s purpose. But the story of Babel suggests that there are at least two kinds of unity. The unity willed by God is that all humanity should be in relationship with God and with God alone, responding to God's purposes, relying upon God's power for its significance. The scattering that God wills is that the earth should be ...

1535. The Grip

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... you need. You secure your ropes tightly. You practice breathing techniques. You know to stay calm in a crisis, and you know what to do if stones give way or if your mask slips. Whether you climb high or go deep, you are ready. In a sense, this kind of readiness is what Jesus is describing to his disciples in our scripture for today. In his parable, Jesus depicts a sower (God) sowing seeds of grace over the entire terrain (the world’s people). The seeds are all the same. God isn’t bestowing better seeds ...

1536. Weeds

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon

William G. Carter

... be pulling up the weeds, you could end up destroying the wheat, the good crop of wheat. This is why we need a Savior, somebody who sees clearly and ultimately will do the final sorting. The day will come, said Christ, when the fisherman’s net has caught all kinds of fish, and the good will be separated from the bad. (Matthew 13:47-50) The day will come, he said, when the sheep will be separated from the goats, all on the basis of whether or not they learned to show compassion and care. (Matthew 25:31- 46 ...

1537. I Have Been Gifted!

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Sermon

Ronald Love

... precedence over accolades. This is why Paul could open his letter with these words, “I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way — with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge — God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift…” Paul is saying that within that dysfunctional community, the Holy Spirit is present. Paul is saying that within that dysfunctional ...

1538. Pursued by Mercy

John 10:11-18 · Psalm 23

Sermon

Will Willimon

... one. He told her, "Go away! Leave me alone!" She would smile. Try to coax him to eat his Jello. At night, she would tuck him in. "Don't need nobody to help me," he would growl. Soon, he grew so weak he had not the strength to resist her kindness. Late at night, after her duties were done, she would pull up a chair and sit by his bed and sing to him as she held his old, gnarled hand. And he looked up at her in the dim lamp light and wondered if he saw the face of a ...

1539. Wherever The Messiah Is

Matthew 16:13-23

Sermon

William G. Carter

... a pretty effective program. Kids stop by after school, before the parents pick them up after work. There’s a snack, and a few minutes of fun. As you would expect, the core of the program is a group of concerned volunteers. She said they come in two kinds. The first group of volunteers has great concern for the kids. They exude expertise and years of experience. “Sit down, kids, and let me show you how it’s done. Let’s straighten out your nouns and verbs. Let’s make sure all your numbers add up. I ...

1540. Keeper of the Keys

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , so also is Peter an earthly leader, loyal and in communication with his master, Jesus/God. Peter is the keeper of the keys. He is not the king. Often, when people read this passage, they somehow look at that passage and assume that Peter has been given some kind of godly status with all of the authority and power of a god to make judgments and decisions over the kingdom. But this is not the case. What Peter is doing is carrying out the master’s orders, the master’s plans, the master’s movement, the ...

1541. Schadenfreude

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ! (Beep, beep). We may have laughed, but we also recognized in both of these characters something of ourselves. As in any kind of comedy, whether cartoon or otherwise,we caught a glimpse of some of our crueler and baser motivations as human beings. ... dissonance. Schadenfreude means that you not only aren’t empathizing with someone else’s pain, but you derive a satisfactory kind of pleasure (we call it self-righteousness) from believing that it is somehow deserved and that someone has received his ...

1542. Breathe

John 6:56-69

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Spirit presence became a primary method of prayer and healing. The “breath prayer” was born. Breath prayers were not any kind of meditations derived from Eastern religions or any other practice. This was a uniquely Christian practice developed as an ... given life. The only way we can wade through our current toxic environments is to put on our “Jesus Breathing Apparatus.” Kind of like allowing ourselves to be infused with holy oxygen….strength for the journey. The “armor” of God. Breath for the ...

1543. Baptized in Water

Mark 10:35-45, Psalm 104:1-35

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

... so they could cross the riverbed on dry ground. Even today we talk about being “swamped” or “drowning” when the amount of work overwhelms us. This was the baptism that Jesus spoke of to James and John on the way to Jerusalem. It was a much graver kind of baptism, a much deeper kind of baptism than the one Jesus had at the Jordan River. That was a baptism of repentance, a sign of turning away from one old way of life. That was a sign of turning over a new leaf and making a fresh start. Jews had been ...

1544. God on the Move

Luke 3:1-6 · Isaiah 40

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... feels brand new! And the best part of that new road? No more detours! You can drive straight through! This is the kind of “new beginning” that John, whom we call “the Baptist,” announces during this second Sunday in advent before the appearance of Jesus ... smooth, and all humanity shall see the salvation of God!” Repentance –it’s one of those words that we usually deem kind of “old fashioned.” We don’t talk much about repentance anymore. And yet, it was “the” central theme of John’ ...

1545. Finding the Sermon

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... the things that aren’t. Or what about this? Jesus’ mother and father started for home and didn’t even check to see if Jesus was with them. They left their twelve-year-old son behind, and it took them three entire days to find him again. What kind of parenting is that? Maybe that is meaningful sermon material? But then, we recall that Mary was probably only twelve when that angel showed up at the well and remember that a twelve-year-old in the first century was very different from a twelve-year-old in ...

1546. Two Lives to Live

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... reaction he did. It is the word ‘woe’. For us, that word usually means something sad, or sorrowful, or that is some kind of misery. We say, “Woe is me” when something happens that is unfortunate. But that is not what the word ‘woe’ meant as ... thought they would.” The pastor felt sick in his stomach as he realized that what he had thought had been a warm, act of kindness, was a well- thought-out, deliberate act of using those ten people to further build this man’s own wealth. I don’t believe ...

1547. The List

John 6:27-38

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... like they are. We walk away. Is it easy? Absolutely not. But it allows us stay in control of our own life and be the kind of person we believe we want to be, and not become what someone else wants us to be. It may take finding help. It ... somewhere underneath, perhaps beaten down, perhaps terrified, and that seed of a new way of living is what we care about, what we try to be kind to, and what we pray about. On your list, somewhere underneath the things that have led you to put a name there, can you catch a ...

1548. Remember

John 14:23-29

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... relationship in a new way or find closure in ways you couldn’t before. If you have lost a true love, you may come to terms with the value and beauty that relationship brought to your life and the love that nourished you. No matter what kind of relationship it was, you will go through a grieving process. Mary Frances O’Connor, author of The Grieving Brain, notes in her book the “healing power of memory” in helping us to emerge from grief in a healthy and positive way. Evoking memories, sharing those ...

1549. Never Satisfied

John 14:8-17, (25-27)

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... for faith when this author can give you proof. There’s another who cannot only give you faith, but make you rich at the same time, or at least tell you why you’re not rich, which is usually because you don’t have the right kind of relationship with God. And there’s another who will heal you of whatever ails you — mental, spiritual, physical, or financial ― if you will just say the magic words: “Jesus Christ, my personal Lord and Savior,” and become a sustaining member of his ministry with a ...

1550. From Haunted to Healed

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... circumstances of the man Jesus encountered that day in the region of the Gerasenes, but we do know he was in some kind of way “haunted!”[1] He is living outside of the civilized village by himself among the tombs –carved out caves designated for ... others know about it! This is a powerful and for many of us over-the-top passage, one of those really hard-to-believe kinds of miracles that makes us wonder what on earth that was really about. Living in our 21st-century time of rationality and psychoanalysis, ...

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